Thomas Henry Huxley quotes - page 6

Thomas Henry Huxley was an English biologist and anthropologist, best known for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Often called "Darwin's Bulldog," he played a key role in promoting scientific education and evolution in Victorian society. He made significant contributions to comparative anatomy and championed science as the foundation of modern knowledge. Here are 214 of his quotes:

Lamarck, sagacious as many of his views were, mingled them with so much that was crude and even absurd, as to neutralize the benefit which his originality might have effected had he been a more sober and cautious thinker...

Thomas Henry Huxley

It is quite true that, to the best of my judgment, the argumentation which applies to brutes holds equally good of men; and, therefore, that all states of consciousness in us, as in them, are immediately caused by molecular changes of the brain-substance. It seems to me that in men, as in brutes, there is no proof that any state of consciousness is the cause of change in the motion of the matter of the organism. If these positions are well based, it follows that our mental conditions are simply the symbols in consciousness of the changes which takes place automatically in the organism; and that, to take an extreme illustration, the feeling we call volition is not the cause of a voluntary act, but the symbol of that state of the brain which is the immediate cause of that act.

Thomas Henry Huxley

If the brutes have consciousness and no souls, then it is clear that, in them, consciousness is a direct function of material changes; while, if they possess immaterial subjects of consciousness, or souls, then, as consciousness is brought into existence only as the consequence of molecular motion of the brain, it follows that it is an indirect product of material changes. The soul stands related to the body as the bell of a clock to the works, and consciousness answers to the sound which the bell gives out when it is struck.

Thomas Henry Huxley

The consciousness of brutes would appear to be related to the mechanism of their body simply as a collateral product of its working, and to be as completely without any power of modifying that working as the steam-whistle which accompanies the work of a locomotive engine is without influence upon its machinery. Their volition, if they have any, is an emotion indicative of physical changes, not a cause of such changes.

Thomas Henry Huxley

From the point of view of the moralist the animal world is on about the same level as a gladiator's show. The creatures are fairly well treated, and set to fight-whereby the strongest, the swiftest and the cunningest live to fight another day. The spectator has no need to turn his thumbs down, as no quarter is given.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Misery is a match that never goes out.

Thomas Henry Huxley

No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make up for lack of mother-wit, either in science or in practical life.

Thomas Henry Huxley

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth.

Thomas Henry Huxley

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But it is quite another thing to open the box.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Science reckons many prophets, but there is not even a promise of a Messiah.

Thomas Henry Huxley

The scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his brother.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Of moral purpose I see no trace in Nature. That is an article of exclusively human manufacture and very much to our credit.

Thomas Henry Huxley

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment... not authority.

Thomas Henry Huxley

The man-like Apes... have certain characters of structure and of distribution in common.

Thomas Henry Huxley

What is this wide-spread component of the surface of the earth? and whence did it come? You may think this no very hopeful inquiry. You may not unnaturally suppose that the attempt to solve such problems as these can lead to no result, save that of entangling the inquirer in vague speculations, incapable of refutation and of verification. If such were really the case, I should have selected some other subject than a "piece of chalk" for my discourse. But, in truth, after much deliberation, I have been unable to think of any topic which would so well enable me to lead you to see how solid is the foundation upon which some of the most startling conclusions of physical science rest.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Only two suppositions seem to be open to us - Either each species of crocodile has been specially created, or it has arisen out of some pre-existing form by the operation of natural causes. Choose your hypothesis; I have chosen mine. I can find no warranty for believing in the distinct creation of a score of successive species of crocodiles in the course of countless ages of time.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Becky Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten thousand a year, has its application to nations; and it is futile to expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and gross.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Surely there is a time to submit to guidance and a time to take one's own way at all hazards.

Thomas Henry Huxley